Unfortunately for the last couple of weeks due to professional and personal reasons I had to completely neglect the blog, and I apologize for that, but I am happy to be back now!
The rose spring flush has been glorious this year and I have literally taken thousands of photos, but sadly I didn't have the time to sort though them and put up a blog post to share them with you, dear readers. My husband and I are now on vacation and I used my first chance to work on this post. So with no further ado, here are some more shots from this years rose spring flush.
...and later, on a very hot day, the flowers are partly tattered, but wonderfully perfumed and to me they still radiate dignified elegance.
'Grandmother's Hat' to the right at her peak (to the left you can see 'Reine des Violettes'). I love how she was looking untamed and wild-romantic this year. She has never flowered that opulent for me as this spring.
A few close-ups of 'Grandmother's Hat': Her flowers can vary greatly in color. They can appear in a very soft pastel pink...
...or in a much more saturated, intense pink.
'Reine des Violettes' has one of the most amazing color out of all of my roses. It can be called a grayish violet and I adore how the petals unfold in an almost unruly but fascinating way. The color is very hard to capture for me with my camera, but the photo above comes close. Unfortunately, the bush itself is not such a joy to look at. So far it is a little bit puny, even though the rose is the third year in my garden.
'Sweetness' has become an impressive five by five feet bush in my front yard. It astounds me that it is doing so well despite the fact that it is growing in very close proximity of a tall 'Queen Palm'. But the moment I don't fertilize or water it enough it goes downhill. I really have to watch it!
A single bloom of 'Sweetness'.
'Iceberg' growing through an obelisk in a big container. A rose that is mostly pretty and blooms generously in Southern California, but can get powdery mildew badly in my garden. This is an own-root growing specimen, which has been mildew-free this spring.
This rose, 'Madame Alfred Carriere', just comes into its own. We planted it into the ground last year in July, I believe, and it started to flower more generously this spring and also the size of the blooms has increased. It is supposed to be a very vigorous climber and I am expecting great things from this rose in the future.
The rose spring flush has been glorious this year and I have literally taken thousands of photos, but sadly I didn't have the time to sort though them and put up a blog post to share them with you, dear readers. My husband and I are now on vacation and I used my first chance to work on this post. So with no further ado, here are some more shots from this years rose spring flush.
'Charles Darwin' is a very lovely and healthy light yellow rose in my garden,...
...which blooms open almost always to a perfect form.
The off-white flowers of 'Marie Pavie' never fail to touch my heart. Above: Just beginning to open...
...and later, on a very hot day, the flowers are partly tattered, but wonderfully perfumed and to me they still radiate dignified elegance.
A few close-ups of 'Grandmother's Hat': Her flowers can vary greatly in color. They can appear in a very soft pastel pink...
...or in a much more saturated, intense pink.
However they turn out, I think, they are always lovely. 'Grandmother's Hat' was one of my absolute favorite roses this spring!
'Reine des Violettes' has one of the most amazing color out of all of my roses. It can be called a grayish violet and I adore how the petals unfold in an almost unruly but fascinating way. The color is very hard to capture for me with my camera, but the photo above comes close. Unfortunately, the bush itself is not such a joy to look at. So far it is a little bit puny, even though the rose is the third year in my garden.
'Sweetness' has become an impressive five by five feet bush in my front yard. It astounds me that it is doing so well despite the fact that it is growing in very close proximity of a tall 'Queen Palm'. But the moment I don't fertilize or water it enough it goes downhill. I really have to watch it!
A single bloom of 'Sweetness'.
A nice spray of 'Old Fashioned Girl'. I am really thankful that this rose is doing so well despite the fact that it is growing in front of a white heat reflecting South-West facing wall.
My second 'Pierre de Ronsard' aka 'Eden' in the backyard. It just came into its own, when my other one was way over her peak.
The very full blooms of 'Pierre de Ronsard' are always a joy to look at!
Depending on how hot it is, the color changes from a cool pink (see photo of multiples flowers further above) to a more warm almost apricot pink like on the image directly above.
'Iceberg' growing through an obelisk in a big container. A rose that is mostly pretty and blooms generously in Southern California, but can get powdery mildew badly in my garden. This is an own-root growing specimen, which has been mildew-free this spring.
'Yolande d'Aragon' another particularly opulent rose with a great fragrance.
This rose, 'Madame Alfred Carriere', just comes into its own. We planted it into the ground last year in July, I believe, and it started to flower more generously this spring and also the size of the blooms has increased. It is supposed to be a very vigorous climber and I am expecting great things from this rose in the future.
Almost always an immaculate white Hybrid Tea rose in my garden: 'Pope John Paul II'.
'Moonstone' produces very big, gorgeous flowers, which are good for cutting and last a long time in the vase and yet, the rose drives me crazy. It is the most disease ridden bush that I have in my garden (mainly rust and powdery mildew) and I am seriously debating with me to get rid of it for that reason.
Here is a whole bush shot of 'Moonstone', when it was in full swing this spring. You really can't see the powdery mildew that much on this picture, but believe me, it is there! The rust occurred a little later after I took this photo.
Besides being so sickly, the rose still manages to flower, even though flowering is definitively impaired. One good thing is, that it is planted across the pool, so usually no one visiting the garden can come up close enough to see the ugly mess of leaves.
'Our Lady of Guadalupe' is usually one of the first roses to bloom in spring in my garden. But this year she was one of the last and started when it was time to deadhead the spring flush of other varieties. I pruned her very late and that postponed her blooms quite a bit.
The spring flush is long over by now and some of the roses were approaching their second flush, when we had to part for our vacation in Devon, England. As much as I love going on vacation, it is always hard for me to leave the garden alone. I am sure many of you keen gardeners out there can completely relate to this!
Hopefully it won't take that long until I get to post next time. It will be for sure be something about our England trip. I would be happy, if you could come back and pay me another visit soon.
See you in the garden!
Christina
